The bronze skies / by Catherine Asaro.
“Major Bhaajan achieved the impossible. Born to the Undercity, the slums below the City of Cries on the planet Raylicon, she broke free from crushing poverty and crime to become a military officer with Imperial Space Command. Now retired from military duty, she walks the mean streets of Undercity as a private investigator. And she is about to embark on her most challenging case yet. Summoned by no less than the Ruby Pharaoh herself, Major Bhaajan is tasked with finding a killer. But this is no ordinary murderer. The Ruby Pharaoh witnessed a Jagernaut cut down Assembly Councilor Tap Benton, which shouldn’t have been possible. The Jagernauts are the elite of the elite soldiers in the Imperial Space Command. What’s more, the spinal node implanted in all Jagernauts should have prevented the murder. But the Ruby Pharaoh is sure of what she saw, and she has reason to believe that the Jagernaut will kill again.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Survival / Ben Bova.
“Book 4 of The Star Quest series. In Survival , a human team sent to scout a few hundred lightyears in front of the death wave encounters a civilization far in advance of our own, a civilization of machine intelligences. These sentient, intelligent machines have existed for eons, and have survived earlier “death waves,” gamma ray bursts from the core of the galaxy. They are totally self-sufficient, completely certain that the death wave cannot harm them, and utterly uninterested in helping to save other civilizations, organic or machine. But the humans have discovered them; they refuse to allow them to leave their planet, reasoning that other humans will inevitably follow if they learn of their existence.” (Adapted from Syndteics summary)

Emergence : a Foreigner novel / C.J. Cherryh.
“The nineteenth book in the Foreigner space opera series and the sequel to Convergence. Bren Cameron, acting as the representative of the atevi’s political leader, Tabini-aiji, as well as translator between humans and atevi, has undertaken a mission to the human enclave of Mospheira. Both his presence on the island and his absence from the continent have stirred old enemies to realize new opportunities. The space station on which the world increasingly relies is desperate to get more supplies up to orbit and to get a critical oversupply of human refugees down to the world below. Rationing is in force on the station, but the overpopulation problem has to be solved quickly and Bren’s mission on Mospheira has expanded to include preparation for that landing.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Seventh decimate / Stephen R. Donaldson.
“Fire. Wind, pestilence, earthquake, drought and lightning, these are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil. But a seventh Decimate exists, the most devastating one of all. For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides harnessing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power, and now the Bellegerins stand defenseless. Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. But it is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to locate the book of the seventh Decimate and reverse the fate of his land.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Bayou born / Hailey Edwards.
“Deep in the humid Mississippi bayou, a half-wild child is dragged from the murky waters. She has no memories, no family and is covered in mysterious markings. Adopted by the policeman who rescued her, Luce Boudreau follows him onto the force, determined to prove herself in the eyes of those who are still suspicious. However, there’s more of a battle ahead than Luce could possibly imagine. She may be an orphan without a past, but no one, including Luce herself could ever be prepared for the truth of her dark, powerful destiny.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

All those explosions were someone else’s fault / James Alan Gardner.
“Monsters are real, but so are heroes.Sparks are champions of weird science, boasting capes and costumes and amazing super-powers that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard, they fight an eternal battle for truth and justice, mostly. Darklings are creatures of myth and magic: ghosts, vampires, were-beasts, and the like. Their very presence warps reality, doors creak at their approach and cobwebs gather where they linger. Kim Lam is an ordinary college student until a freak scientific accident transforms Kim and three housemates into Sparks and drafts them into the never-ending war between the Light and Dark. They struggle to master their new abilities and to design cool costumes and come up with great hero-names.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

A war in crimson embers / Alex Marshall.
“The Crimson Empire trilogy concludes in this epic story of redemption. Zosia, the once-heroic warrior, now lives as an outcast, her former comrades-in-arms spread out around the world, and the world itself on the verge of destruction. But Zosia isn’t prepared to simply watch the world die. She has one last battle in her, but she can’t do it alone; she needs to rebuild her army and regain her sense of purpose.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The castle in Cassiopeia / by Mike Resnick.
“Book 3 in the Dead Enders series. Pretorius and his Dead Enders kidnapped the real General Michkag and substituted a clone who had been raised and trained in the Democracy. They find that the clone likes being the most powerful man in the hundred-world Traanskei Coalititon and having been raised on Earth, he knows how humans think and react. This becomes a many-layered problem for Pretorius and what is left of his Dead Enders. As the only humans on a totally militarized alien world, they must first find where the best-guarded member of the enemy’s military, Michkag, is hiding and how many aliens, or regiments, or divisions, are guarding him, and then they must find a way past all his lines of defense to kill or capture him.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Blood and tempest / Jon Skovron.
“This the third book and conclusion in the Empire of Storms series. Still reeling from the events at Dawn’s Light, Hope struggles to understand what it means to be a warrior who has vowed to never again take up a sword. Red is enjoying his new role as imperial spy, perhaps a bit too much. But his loyalties will be tested when his employer, Lady Hempist, relents and assigns him the one task he’s been begging for all along: recruiting Hope and Brigga Lin to help rid the empire of biomancery once and for all.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

An unkindness of ghosts / Rivers Solomon.
“Eccentric Aster was born into slavery on, and is trying to escape from, -a brutally segregated spaceship that for generations has been trying to escort the last humans from a dying planet to a Promised Land. When she discovers clues about the circumstances of her mother’s death, she also comes closer to disturbing truths about the ship and its journey. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSSMatilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot, -if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)